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 WALTER B. STONE
G. W. GOODRICH

It is always a pleasure to the biographer to record the lives of men such as those mentioned in this sketch. Walter B. Stone was born in Warrensburg, Warren county, New York, July 2, 1846, the son of William B. and Mary (Fuller) Stone. They moved to Washington county, New York, in 1854, and in 1867 the family came to Eden township, Fayette county, Iowa. Walter had worked at home in the sawmills and had become a sawyer. In December, 1863, he enlisted in Company A, Second New York Veteran Cavalry, most of the members of which regiment were veterans in the service. He joined the regiment at Camp Stanton, Virginia. In February they were transferred to the Department of the Gulf and sent to Morganza Bend, on the Mississippi, Col. Morgan H. Chisler having been sent by ocean vessel to New Orleans. The regiment got new horses at New Orleans. Their service consisted in keeping the eastern and western armies in touch, scouting and other such duties. In the last campaign they were transferred to the coast of Florida, marched to Fort Blakely and were there at the time of Lee's surrender. Mr. Stone continued to serve with his command and was discharged at the end of his term in November, 1865. The regiment had headquarters at Talladye, Alabama, during the last few months. There was a great deal of factional felling and troops were necessary to maintain peace. After his discharge Mr. Stone went back to New York, but was in bad health on account of his service. He attended school and worked in a store until 1866. Oliver Stone, a cousin of William B., was already in Iowa and so they moved there. They first rented land near Eden, then bought a farm near Hawkeye, then came back to Eden township, until in 1878 his father moved to Nebraska, where he died in 1883. His wife spent her remaining life with her son, W. B., a daughter in Nebraska, and a daughter in New Hampshire, in which latter place she died in 1897. James W., a brother of Walter B., who had served in the Twenty-second Regiment New York Infantry and in the Second New York Veteran Cavalry for four years and a half, had come to Iowa with the family, but in 1868 he and Walter went to Chicago and there they learned the upholsterer's trade. James died in Chicago in 1902. Walter spent fourteen years at the upholstering trade, being the foreman of a large shop with twenty-five men under him at the time he left the trade. He was in Chicago at the time of the fire and saw the most of it, especially in the heaviest business districts. 

In 1882 he returned to Iowa and took charge of his wife's homestead. On this farm, on September 3, 1872, he had been married to Eva A. Goodrich, the daughter of the Rev. G. W. and Catherine Fellers Goodrich. G. W. Goodrich was born in Franklin, Delaware county, New York, February 16, 1811, and came to Iowa in 1866. He had begun to preach in the Methodist church, was a circuit rider for four or five years, and finally united with the Free Will Baptists. He had lost his health and came west on that account. He had owned land here before, but bought the present farm, which had been settled thirty years before by William Murray, after his coming, and began to farm, but was soon called upon to preach. His church had a congregation at Eden, but no building. He preached all over this country, and continued to serve until age prevented. He was a man with hosts of friends, popular and will liked. In the number of marriages which he solemnized and funeral he preached he was far in advance of most preachers, for his services were much in demand on such occasions. His strong Unionism was perhaps one of the reasons why during the war he was chosen to preach the funerals of so many soldiers who had been sent home for burial. At one time he married six couples at one ceremony, mostly soldiers just starting to war. One couple in Iowa, Fayette Schenk and wife, were married standing in a wagon. He was liberal in his views. Mrs. Goodrich died in 1878, falling into a well in the night while visiting a neighbor, and dying instantly. Mr. Goodrich died at the old home December 29, 1906, aged ninety-four years, ten months and thirteen days. He had been married on March 21, 1839. His parents were Morris and Ruth Goodrich. Mrs. Walter B. Stone was born in Schoharie county, New York, came to Iowa at the age of fourteen and has lived on the farm ever since with the exception of ten years in Chicago. Her twin sister, Adeline, married S. C. Main, and died in Bethel township at the age of forty-five years.

From 1882 Mr. Stone carried on general farming very successfully until his death, which occurred on June 10, 1910, the place comprising one hundred and thirty acres of well improved land. In 1884 he built the present home. Two of his children died in childhood, and the five living are: George G., carpenter and blacksmith, of Alpha; Lestena, who married R. D. Davis, of Alpha; Walter B., Jr., operating the farm and living with his parents; Ina M., a teacher, graduate of the Waucoma high school; Arthur M., now a student in the same high school. Mr. Stone was in former years a Republican, but later became a Prohibitionist. He was a member of Sutherland Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Waucoma. Always faithful as a soldier, at his trade, and on the farm, he lived to see the results of that faithfulness in the prosperity and happiness of himself and his family. Mr. Stone was for twenty years a member of and an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal church in which he held official position as steward and trustee.

                                               
~transcribed for the Fayette Co IAGenWeb Project by Richard Smith